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Overseas tourists happier when traveling both Seoul, local areas

Deoksugung Palace is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Seoul.

By Kang Gahui and Yoon Sojung
Photos = Jeon Han

Research has shown that overseas sightseers who visit Korea seem to be more satisfied when visiting both Seoul and local areas.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization announced on Nov. 7 the result of joint research on the satisfaction of overseas tourists who visit Korea based on where they travel.

Among the respondents, those who visited both local areas and the capital city, which accounts for 19.8 percent of the answerers, showed the highest level of satisfaction with their trips compared to those who visited only the capital city and those who visited only local areas.

The research was conducted on a total of 13,841 overseas tourists who visited Korea in 2017 and categorized them into three groups—those who visited only the capital city which accounted for 62.8 percent of the total answerers, those who visited both the capital city and local areas, and those who traveled only to local areas.

Although the number of tourists who visited only the capital city area is three times higher than tourists in the other groups, most of tourists showed almost the same level of satisfaction with overall tourism factors such as safety, shopping, tourist attractions, public transport, immigration procedure and tourist information service.

According to the research, 92.4 percent of answerers said they would recommend others to travel to Korea.

In regard to food, those who visited the capital city expressed the highest level of satisfaction. Those who visited local areas seemed to be more satisfied with travel expenses and language communication.

The Korea Tourism Organization said they would share the results of the joint research so that it can work with local governments to help them achieve the national policy goal of achieving balanced development for local areas through tourism.

Naejangsan Mountain in Jeollabuk-do Province bustles with tourists who enjoy the beauty of autumn foliage in Korea.